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The Institutional Revolution: A review essay

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  • Richard Langlois

Abstract

This review essay discusses and appraises Douglas Allen’s The Institutional Revolution ( 2011 ) as a way of reflecting on the uses of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) in economic history. It praises and defends Allen’s method of asking “what economic problem were these institutions solving?” But it insists that such comparative-institutional analysis be imbedded within a deeper account of institutional change, one driven principally by changes – often endogenous changes – in the extent of the market and in relative scarcities. The essay supports its argument with a variety of examples of the NIE applied to economic history. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

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  • Richard Langlois, 2013. "The Institutional Revolution: A review essay," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 383-395, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:26:y:2013:i:4:p:383-395
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-013-0237-5
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    Cited by:

    1. Douglas Allen, 2013. "In defence of the institutional revolution," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 397-412, December.
    2. Muñoz, Félix & Encinar, María Isabel & Fernández-de-Pinedo, Nadia, 2014. "Intentionality and technological and institutional change: Implications for economic development," Working Papers in Economic Theory 2014/04, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    3. Van Bavel, Bas, 2015. "History as a laboratory to better understand the formation of institutions," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 69-91, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; Transaction costs; Aristocracy; Military history; Factory system; B52; D02; D23; N01; N4;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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